Filmmaker Aaron Lieber is a surf rat who grew up in landlocked Fallbrook. That geography worked out a lot better than you’d think.

“When I grew up, the 76 freeway was just this two-lane road running along Mission Avenue all the way from Fallbrook to the beach, and the car rides were just so cool,” the 27-year-old Lieber said of the many weekends his longboarding dad drove him and his older sister to beaches in Cardiff and Oceanside. “I had such an imaginative mind. I would just look out the window and make up all these stories. It was a romantic vibe. It felt like we were going on an adventure every time.”

That two-lane road is a major thoroughfare now. As for the boy who told himself stories on the way to the beach, he is still telling them. And it is still an adventure every time.

On Sunday, the Fallbrook High graduate will be at Bird’s Surf Shed in Bay Park for the Second Annual San Diego Surf Film Festival, which he is attending not only as a fan but as a filmmaker. At 3 p.m., the festival will screen “Zero to 100,” Lieber’s documentary following young surfing phenom Lakey Peterson as she navigated the choppy competitive waters of the Association of Surfing Professionals’ 2012 Women’s World Championship Tour.

Lieber filmed Peterson competing in tournaments in Australia, France and Brazil, ending with her win at the U.S. Open in Huntington Beach. He shot footage from the beach, from helicopters and in the water, spending hours of sun-bleached quality time in some of the best surfing spots in the world.

Since its release last month, “Zero to 100” has been shown at theaters in Peterson’s hometown of Santa Barbara and in Huntington Beach and Australia. It hit No. 1 on iTunes Sports, and it will soon be showing at surf film festivals in Hawaii and Germany.

Lieber did the majority of the camera work and all of the editing, putting the 56-minute film together over three weeks of 16-hour editing sessions. At some point, this rush of good news will probably soak in. At the moment, he is still stunned that this boyhood hobby seems to be unspooling into a career.

“It’s weird, but in a good way,” Lieber said during an interview in the Surf Shed loft, where he had a good view of the screen that would eventually be showing his movie. “When you make surfing films as a kid, you just do it. I never anticipated having this much success. I just did it because I loved it.”

Lieber began surfing because his dad surfed, graduating from longboard paddling at Cardiff Reef to more serious shortboard action at Oceanside Harbor’s South Jetty. He’s been making surf videos for so long, he can’t remember when he actually started. But he sure remembers why.

“I surfed and skateboarded and snowboarded. I was a kid who was good at everything but not amazing at anything. But I was good at filming,” said Lieber, who now lives in San Clemente.